"I thought the first half was really good basketball for us," South Alabama head coach Terry Fowler said. "It was the type of basketball that we want to play. We just weren't able to sustain it. It started on the defensive end of the floor. We were playing great in the first half. In the second half, Arkansas State just got things going. I think a key moment was when Ronneka (Robertson) got her third foul. That put us at a disadvantage both defensively and offensively. They started to really attack us inside and they were able to take advantage of some things.

"If we come with energy and have the activity and awareness at the defensive end of the floor that we need to have, we can do some good things. We're going to take this as a learning opportunity. We just have to move forward and put 40 minutes together. I thought we put together about 20-25 minutes today. We just got to find a way to put another 10-15 minutes with that."

USA (4-10, 2-2 SBC) will now return home to take on Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Mitchell Center. Arkansas State remains perfect in league play and improves to 10-6 overall and 4-0 in the conference.

Meghan Dunn and Colby Davis just missed tying their career highs as they finished with 18 and 15 points, respectively. Dunn was 6-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-3 at the three-point line, while also hitting all three of her free-throw attempts. Davis ended the night with 15 points and did most of her damage at the foul line as she went 8-for-10 at the charity stripe.

"Colby played well tonight," Fowler said. "As a freshman on the road against the best team in the league, she just put her head down and was really aggressive. She was able to get to the line and knocked down her free throws. I thought Meghan Dunn really played like a senior. She was fighting to the end and really led our ball club."

ASU placed four players in double figures in the win led by Hanna Qedan's 18. Qedan was 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from the arc. Jasmine Hunt added a career-best 17 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting. Aundrea Gamble had 15 and Jalen O'Bannon ended the night with 11.